Atomizer sleeve for skein dyeing



Jan. 17, 1961 L. WALMSLEY 2,968,175

ATOMIZER SLEEVE FOR sKEIN DYEING Filed March 4, 1958 United States Patent O ice ,;;....e,, 17,1

2,968,175 ATOMIZER SLEEVE FOR SKEIN DYEING Leslie L. Walmsley, Swarthmore, Pa., assignor to American Viscose Corporation, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Delaware Filed Mar. 4, 1958, Set-(No. 719,014

3 Claims. (Cl. 68-206) The present invention relates to a yarn skein dyeing apparatus. In particular, the invention relates to a perforated flexible atomizing sleeve which is positioned around a skein-supporting dyeing tube of a yarn skein dyeing apparatus.

A great deal of yarn, particularly rayon, is dyed on yarn skein dyeing apparatus commonly known as a Gas cade machine. With the use of this apparatus, dye liquor is forced through perforations in a skein-supporting dyeing tube under high pressure. The apparatus also provides a rotatable arm supported immediately adjacent the tube in such a manner that it lies within the yarn skeins for intermittently rotating the skeins about the arm to assure level or uniform dyeing.

The dye liquor jets issuing through the dyeing tube perforations strike the yarn of the skeins with quite a severe impact whereby, especially in the case of fine denier yarn, the filments making up the yarn are exploded out of their original alignment and become tangled. This tangled filament condition remains in the yarn during the additional processing steps, and after the skeins are dried the yarn is in a tangled and fuzzy condition. Extreme difficulty is encountered in subsequent winding of the yarn upon suitable collecting bobbins because of this tangled condition. The winding efliciency is generally reduced to approximately 30% below top efficlency which necessitates constant rewinding, all of which results in lost operating time and higher costs for the winding operation.

It is therefore one object of my invention to provide a novel and improved yarn skein dyeing apparatus wherein tangling of the yarn filaments is virtually elfminated without detracting from the level dyeing properties of the dyed yarn.

Another object of my invention is to provide a novel and improved flexible perforated atomizing sleeve which may be easily installed with very little effort and expense by the operator around a dyeing tube of a yarn skein dyeing apparatus now in use whereby present dyeing equipment may be easily converted to the present device.

Still another object of my invention is to provide a novel and improved atomizing Sleeve of the above object wherein means are provided for preventing rotation of the sleeve as the yarn skeins are rotated around the dyeing tube during operation of the apparatus.

Another object of my invention is to provide an atom izing sleeve of the above objects which is formed of textile fabric having a relatively small mesh.

Other objects and advantages of my invention will become apparent from a study of the following description and drawing wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective of my improved and novel skein-dyeing apparatus;

Figure 2 is a detail of a portion of the atomizing sleeve; and

Figure 3 is a perspective on a decreased scale of an embodiment of my invention.

As seen in Figure l of the drawing, my skein-dyeing apparatus includes a supply tank 1 which holds a suit able dye liquor 2 and which is connected through a supply conduit 3 to a dye liquor tube 4 having perforations 5 extending through its surface around and along the tube length. A pump 6 is housed within the conduit 3. Rotatably secured to one end of the conduit 3 and to an extension rod 8 of the dye tube 4 at the free end thereof is an arm 10 which extends along the tube 4 in spaced relationship therewith and which is rotated by a drive belt 12.

In operation, the dye liquor 2 is pumped by pump 6 from the supply tank 2 through supply conduit 3 and into the dyeing tube 4 from which it issues through perforations 5 in strong streams or jets. The dye liquor then strikes the yarn skeins 14 and drains back into the tank 1. During this, operation, the skeins 14 are intermittently rotated around the dyeing tube 4 by the rotating arm 10 (lifted from the tube, rotated, and rode posited upon the tube) to insure level dyeing of the yarn within the skeins.

So far, the above description sets forth the general type of skein-dyeing apparatus which is in use today. With this type of apparatus, the jets of dye liquor strike the yarn within the skeins with quite a severe impact whereby the filament arrangement of the yarn is d'strubed and becomes tangled thus making subsequent winding operations difficult and expensive.

My invention which is used with the above general type of apparatus will eliminate such filament tangling as is caused by the strong jet streams issuing from the perforations 5 of the dyeing tube 4.

As further seen in Figure 1, I have provided a flexible sleeve 16 having perforations 18 which is positioned around the dyeing tube 4. The perforations 18 of the sleeve 16 are relatively small in comparison with the perforations of the tube 4 whereby the dye liquor issuing from the tube perforations 5 is atomized into fine spray form as it passes through the perforations 18 of the sleeve 16. With this arrangement, the strong jet streams issuing from the tube 4 are converted into a fine soft spray.

Preferably, the sleeve 16 is formed from a length of material whereby the sleeve may be easily installed around the dyeing tube 4 without disassembling any portion of the apparatus. The length of the material from which the sleeve 16 is formed is merely slid around the tube 4 after which the ends of the material are joined together to form a sleeve.

To join together the ends of the material, a line of eyelets 20 are formed along the border of each end of the fabric. The eyelets 20 of one end of the material coincide in position with the eyelets 20 of the other end of the material when the ends of the material are brought together. A relatively heavy rod 22, preferably made of steel, is laced through the eyelets 20 of both ends of the material to firmly join the ends of the material together to form a sleeve (see Figure 2).

The rod 22 a so has a secondary function or purpose. It serves to maintain the sleeve 16 in its orginally set position as the skeins 14 are rubbed against the sleeve 16 when they are rotated around the tube 4 by the rotating arm 10. The weight of the heavy rod 22 prevents the sleeve from rotating from its original set positi n, as shown in Figure 1, as the skeins are rotated. The rotatable arm 10 is spaced at suflicient distance from the tube 4 to provide adequate clearance between the sleeve and the arm.

If desired, however, the sleeve may be formed by sewing the ends of the material together or, in the case of thermoplastic material, by heat-sealing the ends of the material together prior to its installation on the dyeing tube 4. In fact, the material may be initially formed in sleeve configuration for immediate installation on the tube 4. When using these latter mentioned sleeves, the rotatable rod or arm 10 must be slipped olf its supporting extension 8 at the far end of the tube 4, after which the already formed sleeves are positioned around the tube 4. The rotatable rod 10 is then returned to its original position. In this event, the pointed rod 22 may 'be simply laced through the perforations of the sleeve 'will not rotate with the skeins 14, each hole 25 of the 'rod 22 is slipped over a retaining hook 27 permanently supported in position adjacent each end of the dyeing tube 4. As seen in Figure 3, one hook 27 depends from the supply conduit 3 while the other hook depends from the extension rod 8 of the dyeing tube 4. With this arrangement, the sleeve is firmly anchored in place so that it cannot rotate with the skeins 14.

The material used to form the atomizing sleeve is preferably a textile fabric material having a relatively small mesh as compared to the size of the perforations of the dyeing tube 4. For instance the sleeve may be a gauze made of materials that will not normally be discolored by the dye liquor being used. Whatever material is used, it should be woven or knitted in such a manner that it will break or elfectively mufile the harmful jets of dye liquor but will not limit the liquor flow.

When dyeing cotton or rayon yarn, for instance, the material used could be nylon jersey since this type of material is inert to the action of the dye liquors used for dyeing cotton or rayon. The material, however, could be formed of other plastic materials such as fiber glass, Dacron, Orlon, etc.

It would appear that the necessity for the above described sleeves could be satisfactorily eliminated by merely making the perforations 5 of the dyeing tube 4 smaller than is generally provided in skein dyeing apparatus in use today. It must be borne in mind, however, that such an inherent alteration would necessitate the closing down of presently used apparatus and replacing the dyeing tubes with the smaller perforation tubes. This, of course, would necessitate a time loss for the dyeing operators as well as impose upon them an additional expense for the complete alteration. Most dye-processing operators are extremely reluctant to enter into such a proposition. In addition, the smaller holes would tend to become clogged by foreign matter present within the dye liquor.

With my flexible atomizing sleeve, the operator need merely affix the sleeve to the dyeing arm without dfs assembling any of his presently used equipment. The cost of the sleeve may run as low as ten cents per sleeve which provides the operator with a disposal-type sleeve if desired. It is therefore obvious that the cost for improving present skein dyers with my sleeve would be negligible and in addition, a minimum period of time is required to install the fabric sleeve in position on the skein dyer.

It is to be understood that changes and variations may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. Yarn skein dyeing apparatus comprising an opentopped tank adapted to contain a dye liquor, a perforated pipe extending horizontally above said tank, a conduit leading from said tank and discharging into said pipe, pump means in said conduit for pumping dye liquor from said tank and forcing it through the perforations in said pipe in the form of small jet streams, means for rotating skeins of yarn looped over said pipe about said pipe, a substantially rectangular small-mesh fabric draped over said pipe and in contact therewith, and relatively heavy securing means securing opposite edges of said fabric together to form a sleeve, said securing means also serving to hold said fabric in contact with the upper portion of said pipe, said fabric serving to break up the jet streams of dye liquor issuing from the perforations in said pipe whereby the dye liquor will contact the skeins in the form of a fine soft spray.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the fabric forming said sleeve is made of yarn which is resistant to the dye liquor.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said securing means is a metal rod laced through the edges of the fabric.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 433,791 Jackson Aug. 5, 1890 1,599,295 Simonsen Sept. 7, 1926 1,844,908 Skitt Feb. 9, 1932 2,043,870 Webber June 9, 1936 2,053,985 Collins Sept. 8, 1936 2,200,197 Allen May 7, 1940 2,562,199 McLellan July 31, 1951 

